Statistics

The number
of women achieving a Core-STEM apprenticeship has increased by 320 – a 7%
growth on the previous year. The proportion has gone up slightly, reversing the
more recent trend, as the number of men has increased by only 5%.

The number of women graduating in a core STEM subject has continued to grow for another year. These women are talented individuals qualified to take up the exciting opportunities available in STEM and help address the persistent skills gaps across the UK.

There is a huge drop off in the number of girls studying core STEM subjects at the age of 16. Just 35% of girls choose maths, physics, computing or a technical vocational qualification compared to 94% of boys. This reduces the number going on to do a degree or level 4 qualification in maths, physics, computer science or engineering – 9% of girls compared to 29% of boys.

The number of women achieving a STEM apprenticeship has increased by 250 – a 6% growth on the previous year. The percentage has gone down however, because the number of men has increased by just over 5,300, an increase of 10%.

The trends are very positive, with more women working in core STEM than ever before. 61,430 more women work in core STEM * in 2017 than in 2016. The number of men in core STEM fell by 45,980 in the same period.

The number of girls entering key core STEM subjects has increased, despite the overall number of A level entries across all subjects falling. However, girls still remain under represented across core STEM - for the second year in a row they represent just 36.7% of entrants to core STEM subjects due to a growing number of boys taking the subjects too.